Enterprise Hotfix Rollup for Win7 and Server 2008 R2 via WSUS

Question

I stumbled across the fact that Microsoft released a hotfix rollup for Win7 and Server 2008 R2 that contains 90 hotfixes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2775511/en-us
The articled I linked above talks about after installing 2775511 (the big hotfix rollup containing 90 hotfixes) it is also necessary to install three more hotfixes:
After this update is installed, you must install update 2732673 to fix a regression issue in the Rdbss.sys file
After this update is installed, you must install update 2728738 to fix a regression issue in the Profsvc.dll file
After this update is installed, you must install update 2878378 re-released on November 11, 2013 to fix a regression issue in the Advapi32.dll file
I have imported all four of these hotfixes into my WSUS server. Do I need to install 277551 first and then install the other three or can all four be approved and go out at once? I guess I am hung up on the language of "After this update is installed
.... ". I want to put all 4 of these on our Win7 machines as well as my 40+ WinServer 2008 R2 machines

Answer 1

I read somewhere that over half of the updates included in Win7 SP1 and WinServer 2008 R2 SP1 were originally released as hotfixes. This means Microsoft made the decision that a large number of hotfixes would benefit every user of these two OSs
I think your conclusion is flawed. The only thing that you can draw from the presented statistic, is that Microsoft determined that a significant percentage of updates originally released as hotfixes warranted the additional investment in regression testing
to subsequently release those hotfixes as updates.
The fact that they bundled these 90 hotfixes together leads me to the same conclusion.
In fact, exactly the opposite conclusion applies: What you have in this package is all the rest of the stuff that didn't make that cut. What you have in this package are still NOT-regression tested hotfixes, they've just been bundled up for easy deployment
(and note that three of them got further broken in the process of bundling), causing yet three more hotfixes to have to be released.
In fact I read the MS Team Blog about this big hotfix release and they say the same thing, all users of these OSs would benefit from the installation of this hotfix rollup, not just a subset of users.
I suspect there are a notable number of patch administrators and systems administrators who would disagree with that self-serving promotion. If, in fact, it's true that "all users" would benefit, then the product team should have invested the effort in properly
regression testing those hotfixes, and releasing them as REAL updates. They did not; ergo the *actual* value is less than claimed.
Of course the bugaboo here is the fact that three other individual hotfixes need to be installed after the big hotfix rollup is installed.
Exactly! (And those are just the attempted fixes that broke something. Who knows how many other "fixes" may still result in newly discovered "broken stuff" that was never broken in the first place.)
The second part of this question should revolve around an itemized review of the hotfixes contained in this rollup with one simple question asked for each:
Have we actually *experienced* the issue addressed by this hotfix.
Where hotfixes are concerned one very simple but important rule applies:
If it ain't broken, don't try to fix it!
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCSA, MCITP:EA, MCDBA
SolarWinds Head Geek
Microsoft MVP - Software Packaging, Deployment & Servicing (2005-2014)
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/mvp/Lawrence%20R%20Garvin-32101
http://www.solarwinds.com/gotmicrosoft
The views expressed on this post are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of SolarWinds.